, then?"

The chauffeur shook his head dolefully.

"I shall have to take the magneto down, madam," he said. "It will take
several hours, and it ought to be done by daylight."

"And in the meantime, what do you suggest that we do?" she asked.

The man looked a little helpless. His battle of words with Aline had
depressed him.

"I heard a dog bark a little while ago," he remarked. "Perhaps I had
better go and see whether there isn't a farm somewhere near."

"And leave us here alone?" Aline exclaimed indignantly. "It is a good
suggestion. It comes well from the man who has got us into such
trouble!"

Her mistress smiled at her reassuringly.

"What have we to fear, you foolish girl? For myself, I would like better
than anything to remain here until the moon comes over the top of that
round hill. But listen! It is just as I told you. There is no necessity
for Charles to leave us."

They all turned their heads. From some distance behind on the hard,
narrow road, curling like a piece of white tape around the hillside,
there came, faintly at first, but more distinctly every moment, the
sound of horse's hoofs.

"It is as I told you," Louise said composedly. "Some one approaches--on
horseback, too. He will be able to fetch assistance."

The chauffeur walked back a few yards, prepared to give early warning to
the approaching horseman. The two women, standing up in the car, watched
the spot where the road, hidden for some time in the valley, came into
sight.

Louder and louder came the sound of the beating of hoofs. Louise gave a
little cry as a man on horseback appeared in sight at the crest of the
hill. The narrow strip of road seemed suddenly dwarfed, an unreasonable
portion of the horizon blotted out. In the half light there was
something almost awesome in the unusual size of the horse and of the man
who rode it.

"It is a world of goblins, this, Aline!" her mistress exclaimed softly.
"What is it that comes?"

"It is a human being, _Dieu merci_!" the maid replied, with a
matter-of-fact little sigh of content.

Conscious of the obstruction in the road, the rider slackened his speed.
His horse, a great, dark-colored animal, pricked up his ears when
scarcely a dozen yards away from the car, stopped short, and suddenly
bolted out on the open moor. There was the sound of a heavy whip, a
loud, masterful voice, and a very brief struggle, during which the horse
once plunged and reared so high that Louise, watching,